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Before I begin my rant, let me tell you that I work in customer service so I’m usually very nice and patient with customer service representatives. And as someone who is booking travel everyday for customers, I’m in frequent contact with travel agencies, airlines, hotels, etc. etc. In all my time I can definitely say that Expedia.ca’s customer service is the worst I’ve ever experienced. Their level of incompetence is hard to describe but I will certainly try! Hopefully, this story will serve as a warning to you and save you some stress.

Now I usually don’t book on third-party sites such as Expedia. Why book with them, thereby adding in a middle man, when you can often find a great deal offered directly by the hotel and airline? Third-party booking sites are great if you happen to find an awesome deal and everything goes according to plan, but god help you if something unexpected happens and you actually need some customer service! You’ll be speaking to a robot in the Philippines, India, or some country in the Middle East. Yes, I fully expect that when you book a cheap package or ticket, don’t be expecting Ritz-level customer service. But what I’m about to describe to you is evidence of unacceptable customer service on any level.

So we booked a two night flight and hotel package from San Francisco to Las Vegas through Expedia.ca because we found an awesome deal, which meant that we were going for the cost of a cheap lunch. Lo and behold the day arrives to depart and I get a lovely message from US Airways that my flight has been canceled. Side note: another pet peeve are airlines that don’t automatically put you on the next flight out when they cancel a flight. We call the airline only to find that all of the other flights getting into Las Vegas at a reasonable hour (meaning not past midnight) were sold out with long standby lists. Now, we were due to fly back from Las Vegas at the crack of dawn Sunday and were looking forward to going to a nice dinner, show and lounge Friday night, so flying to Las Vegas Saturday just for a day isn’t really worth it for us.

Anywhoo, I proceed to contact Expedia.ca to try to get a refund as a credit with United (who ticketed the tickets and with whom we’ve flown two unpleasant times) doesn’t really do us much good.

I called around 1PM and spoke to agent Nesereen who, despite the online flight status and airline representative’s confirmation, repeatedly told me that the flight is not canceled. She placed me on hold for a long time and eventually said that she could not contact the airline (although I myself had no problem contacting them prior and after my conversation with her when I tried to change my flight directly with them) to confirm that yes, indeed, the flight was canceled. I asked for a supervisor and she said there is no supervisor to talk to.

After a 1.39 hour wait on speakerphone, she again told me the flight is due to depart and to just show up at the airport. Why would I show up at the airport when the flight is canceled?!?!!? She could offer no help other than to repeatedly say that the flight is scheduled to depart, despite my telling her to go on their website to see for herself that it’s canceled.

At 3:19PM I called and spoke to another agent Achmed who questioned how I knew the flight was canceled. After a 30 min hold with him I had to hang up to do other things.

I then called United and told them that Expedia.ca does not believe me when I tell them the flight is canceled. The agent said they will make it clear in the record that the flight is canceled.

At 4:24PM I called and spoke to Kensley. After explaining the situation to him, I was placed on hold and then hung up on.

At 4:28PM I called Expedia and spoke to Yehia (Yehal?). After 59 mins, the call was hung up, guess I was on hold too long.

Now it’s not like I don’t have anything better to do with my time and the amount I wanted refunded was not even an hour’s wage. But I admit I just got caught up and wanted Expedia.ca to give me a satisfactory response just out of principle! I was on a mission!

I called again and spoke to Kareem (sp?) who said that since I used a discount coupon that was already expired to book the original package, I would have to be charged the full amount of the package first and then I would be refunded within 1 – 2 billing cycles a certain amount so that the end difference is the amount I originally paid. I could not just get the amount I paid refunded to my card.

I then got a call back from Yehal (agent #4) who politely informed me that they can charge the full package price first and then I will get a refund later. Yehal was nice enough but do you think it’s a good idea for me to be charged the full package price and then wait around 1 – 2 billing cycles for a promised refund from this company???? I think not!!!

Lesson learned – AVOID Expedia.ca at all cost.

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13 thoughts on “Expedia.ca – WORST customer service ever”

Thanks for the warning. I do use Expedia from time to time, mostly for hotel bookings, but I’ve never had to make any changes. I’ll think twice before booking with them again. What do you think of hotels.com?

Yikes! Scary experience… In my own experience, I write down everyone’s name (like you) and document everything that is said.
The whole thing is very unfortunate. If I had to go through all that, I might have just given up and called it a loss…

I. too. shall never use Expedia again. Why I did in the first place, I’ll never know. I booked a flight with an agent in Egypt who actually spoke good English. from Calgary to Ft Lauderdale where we were to board a cruise ship. I knew we had to leave at midnight to arrive in time to board the ship. \When I got the confirmation next a.m., they had us leaving just before noon on the same day we were to be in Ft Lauderdale!! When I phoned back and got a fellow who did not speak good Eng, it was my fault. I was never given the privilege to listen to the tape. I could not get a refund, I had to take the amount towards another trip within a years. Strange thing also was that we were flying Air Canada until on the return they put us on a Continental flight from Ft L to Houston. The money went to Continental and now when I am using the money I have to fly Continental.

Paul van dyke: when you read all the horrendous stories, you are asking to show mercy. Sorry when it is costing at least $2 000 more than my return flight, I should show mercy. No way!
Kaye Fisher Nov 8, 2011

i believe am fine with expedia.ca
they are fine… actually more than fine… i think u r ppl stupid enough when u dont concentrate in regulations and policies.. and btw in an other place it is no better.. may be the same in the best circum…

Nadia, did you actually read my post? I guess not since it’s about how the flight was canceled and even confirmed by the airline as being canceled but the Expedia.ca reps kept kept telling me it was not and to just go to the airport and wouldn’t reschedule me. They are such robots that they can’t even take the step to go outside of their system and see that the flight’s been canceled on the airline’s site. Now how is that not concentrating on the regulations and policies? And by the way, if you didn’t notice, I worked in the travel industry for years. Trust me, there are plenty of other companies with better customer service. I am sorry if you have never experienced good customer service yourself! What a pity!

Karnelac, there alot of satisfied customer with expedia, you might had bad experience with them but that doesnt mean its a bad agency, as for sure you did several bad things in your life “as we all” but that doesnt mean you are a bad person. And for your own experience, she is only responsible for they system infront of her, and if the system didnt update itself then its the airline problem because the airline is the sender and not expedia’s fault, however i agree that the agent should have called the airline to confirm, so if she didnt do that, then she is mistaken, however again this doesnt mean its expedia’s fault and if it is then it doesnt mean expedia’s customer service is bad. And i see that u judged me that i didnt experience good customer service “which is wrong” as u just judged expedia to haev the worst customer service, thank you anyway. You can just keep yourself away from it and u will be fine.

Yup definitely keeping myself away from them. I want to point out that SEVERAL agents were of no help to me, not just one. As you can read from the post, SEVERAL of them didn’t provide any help and hung on me after placing me on hold for a very long time, which to me indicates either poor training on the part of the company or a poor work environment.

I have sympathy for customer service representatives because I was one for several years. Which also means that I know what good customer service is and that is what I did not get. Again, this is my personal experience and opinion. For you to come on here and say all of us are stupid because we have had bad experiences with them – I do not appreciate.

I didnt mean you as you, i meant for all the retarded ppl who are not aware of the polices and not for your case. but how did u know they hang up on you? Why not the connection? if you really worked as a CS agent and receiving calls from everywhere then you should know that lines hung up, and i believe they said the same that you get bored and hang up on them, and i once been on hold with expedia customer service for 45 min because he was onhold with the airline too… You dont know what the agent is passing through. Assuming also that you are right, that doesnt mean again that expedia has the worst customer service. I had a big fight with vodafone customer service and i do believe am right so is anyone i tell the story but that doesnt mean that EXPEDIA has the worst customer service. And for me its the best because all the time i dealt with them, they were more than great. And for you its the worst because of one experience with them “assuming its expedia’s fault coz i think “not sure” its the airline” but even if… CHILL 🙂